Medicaid still has obstetricians

Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2003 | 9:32 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Despite assertions that obstetricians are pulling out of Las Vegas, Medicaid-qualified pregnant women are not having any trouble getting prenatal care, the state chief of Medicaid told lawmakers Tuesday.

Medicaid is the program that helps cover the medical bills for needy people. In Southern Nevada, the program pays for about 8,000 births a year.

Chuck Duarte, chief of the state Division of Health Care Financing and Policy, told the Legislative Finance Committee that there are more than enough obstetricians under contract to two HMOs to serve pregnant Medicaid patients in Southern Nevada.

The state contracts with Health Plan of Nevada and Nevada Health Solutions, Duarte explained after the meeting. Health Plan reported it had 56 obstetricians who will accept new Medicaid patients and Health Solutions has 68 obstetricians who will take new Medicaid patients who are pregnant, he said. Duarte said those are self-reported numbers from the companies. His staff conducts follow-ups with each doctor to verify the reports, he said.

He said the staff found that Health Plan had 50 doctors and Nevada Health Solutions had 64 doctors who were willing to take new Medicaid patients who are pregnant.

The division also conducts a patient satisfaction survey every quarter. The most recent survey was conducted in November. Of 100 women contacted, 92 said they had "easy or very easy" access to an obstetrician.

Seventy-one of the women said they were able to schedule routine prenatal visits within two weeks of their requests, and 94 of the women said they were able to get those appointments within three to four weeks.